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Saturday, 5 September 2015

Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler): Live-Action Movie!

Hello

An nyoung

Konnichiwa

Ni hao

I know this post is kind of late but better late than never right? Thursday I posted about the live-action movies of Death Note and I said that Fridays post would be along the same lines and I did not lie it's time for the live-action movie of Black Butler. If you saw my previous post on Black Butler you will know I really enjoy both the manga and anime of the series. Like many fans I was rather reluctant with the film as what made the manga interesting for me was changed.

Released 2014 (I noticed it was showing at my local Cineworld but couldn't go as we were going away), the film was directed by Kentaro Otani and Keiichi Sato, one of the films main actors Hiro Muzushima also co-produced and was also credited as a co-screenwrter for the film, he is credited under his birth name Tomohiro Saito as the co-producer. This was also his first starring role in three years.

Originally set in 19th-century London in the manga, the film gave it a new time and place setting it in an unnamed eastern nation and in the year 2020, which for me was the main reason I was a little reluctant to watch it as I really liked and enjoyed it being set during the reign of Queen Victoria. The main change I saw more people complain about was the fact that Sebastian no longer held a contract with the head of the Phantomhive's, the one and only Ciel Phantomhive intead his gender was changed and Sebastian now held a contract with a girl called Genpo Shiori also known as Count Genpo Kiyoharu, this change didn't bother me as much as it had aspects that could be used from the past like pretending she was male to be the head of the household, my only problem with this is that while I am writing this remembering that it's set in the future shows that not many people think we will lose the male led world that we are in today, that the man will always be the one to be in control.

There were a few other character changes with our red headed sharp shooter Mey-Rin now only been known as Rin and the only real household staff to be seen regular, I was gutted about this as I missed Finny and Baldroy, Tanaka is seen after the opening credits with his famous Japanese cup. Ciel's Aunt is also changed from the manga and anime and is no longer known as Madam Red as we lose her red hair, even her backstory is slightly different from the manga and anime.

The main goal of Shiori/Kiyoharu is the same as Ciel, she wants revenge on the people that murdered her parents and kidnapped her, like Ciel she is the Queens Watchdog and while trying to get revenge for her parents she has to complete her mission sent from the Queen, find and stop whoever is causing the appearance of mummified dead bodies, to which a a mysterious tarot card is always left behind with the body.

Mummified dead bodies of various dignitaries from around the world are being discovered, a mysterious tarot card left beside them at the scene. The world is headed towards chaos... Kiyoharu is the young head of the Genpo noble family, owners of a massive toy manufacturing enterprise. He also functions as a secret watchdog for the Queen, a service that his family has provided for generations. The Queen orders Kiyoharu to solve the mummification incidents, and he starts to investigate. He is supported by his perfect butler, Sebastian, who is actually a demon. Kiyoharu has been hiding his true female identity since his parents' tragic death 10 years earlier. In return for perfect service to his master in public and private, Sebastian will receive his master's soul after Kiyoharu achieves revenge for the murder of his parents. Who is really behind the serial mummification deaths? Will Kiyoharu finally find out who killed his/her parents?

Like often seen in the anime there are flashbacks to Kiyoharu's past when her parents were murdered and snippets of this is shown in the opening credits with it closing on Shiori and Sebastian's contract being created with him rescuing her, there are scenes that any Black Butler fan would associate with the manga and anime, like the start of the film when Sebastian rescues Shiori from a smuggler (different from the manga/anime), he is shown fighting with his signature cutlery weapon and is shown to play dead as in the manga and anime.

I'm not going to lie I didn't have high hopes for this film but I really enjoyed the plot and the acting from Hiro Mizushima, Ayame Goriki and Mizuki Yamamoto made it an even more enjoyable watch, the trailer did not do Hiro Mizushima justice as I couldn't decide whether i liked him as my favorite demon butler but after watching it I couldn't have picked a better actor to portray him. Mizuki Yamamoto played Rin really well and I couldn't help smile when she went from clumsy maid to bad ass protecter. Ayame Goriki pulled of head of the Genpo family better then I could have expected she proved she could be the lead in a big movie that is well known in the manga and anime world.

The film was released in Japan January 2014 and the film debuted at third place in it's opening weekend in the Japanese box office and grossed a total of $5,243,260 (in Japan).

Any one can get into this film as you don't have to know the story of the manga or the anime to know whats happening and by the end everything is explained, maybe it will even make you want to know how the story will end in the manga and just see how cunning both Ciel and Sebastian can be.